Martin Luther King's Conservative Legacy

Martin Luther King's Conservative Legacy

It is time for
conservatives to lay claim to the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther
King, Jr. King was no stalwart Conservative, yet his core beliefs,
such as the power and necessity of faith-based association and
self-government based on absolute truth and moral law, are
profoundly conservative. Modern liberalism rejects these ideas,
while conservatives place them at the center of their philosophy.
Despite decades of its appropriation by liberals, King's message
was fundamentally conservative.

The Montgomery Bus
Boycott, triggered by Rosa Parks' refusal to abide by local
segregation laws, sparked King's rise from ministering a small
church in Montgomery to national renown. King's primary aim was not
to change laws, but to change people, to make neighbors of enemies
and a nation out of divided races. King led with love, not racial
hatred. From a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama to the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial, his message inspired the nation. And his message
and achievements inspire us today.

Dr. King believed
in the principles of the American Founding. He maintained, "We will
reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation,
because the goal of America is freedom." Throughout American
history, racism has posed a peculiar obstacle to the achievement of
that goal. However, Dr. King believed that the Founders had set the
nation on the right course. He did not reject the principles of our
nation because contradictions existed; instead he hoped that racial
groups would put aside their differences and acknowledge the
principles that unite all Americans. Today, it is conservatives who
seek to unite. In a nation divided by cultural diversity,
conservatives defend and celebrate the characteristics that we
share as Americans. As America drifts from the ideas and ideals of
the Founders, conservatives stand with King as believers that the
principles of the American Founding are as relevant today as in
1776.

Dr. King believed
in a fixed moral law, an anathema to moral relativists espousing
subjective values. For King, a just law was "a man-made code that
squares with the moral law or the law of God." Dr. King required
that his followers lead moral lives, and he emphasized the
importance of faith in the face of adversity. Modern liberalism has
rebuffed this teaching, dedicating great effort to silence religion
and morality. Again, conservatives are the standard-bearers
here.

For Dr. King,
individual freedom depended upon civic responsibility. He
proclaimed, "I have a dream that my four little children will one
day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of
their skin but by the content of their character." Racial judgment
is inherently unjust, but judgment based on moral character is
essential. King wanted his children to live in a colorblind society
but not a value-neutral society that rejects all standards of
judgment. Today, this is the Conservative message. Moral character
as expressed in our social interactions is at the center of
self-government, which in turn is the sustaining force of American
democracy. Conservatives know that without a morally-informed sense
of social obligation, we would be rudderless.

In today's
parlance, Dr. King's movement would be called "faith-based." Unlike
the doggedly secular groups that now campaign for government action
in the name of "social justice," King's coalition was explicitly
religious, rooted in churches and Christian morality. King's
ever-growing congregation labored for reform in Montgomery, in
Alabama, and then all across the country. The Montgomery Bus
Boycott testifies to the strength of churches and local
institutions to make a difference. The heart of the conservatism
has always been grassroots movement, from the bottom up rather than
from the top down, focused on faith-based and community
associations. While liberals who claim King's legacy seek to
mandate social change from the nation's capital, conservatives seek
to empower communities, associations, and congregations to carry
out moral ends.

King aimed to
unite a divided America behind the goals of the Founders, not to
shift fundamentally unjust public policies to favor different
groups. Affirmative action stands outside King's legacy because it
requires the government to see Americans as members of privileged
and disfavored racial groups, not equal individuals. This is also
the Conservative view.

It is not a
coincidence that conservatives share Dr. King's core principles, as
they are the principles of the American Founding and continue to
guide us today. Dr. King's dream echoes that of the Founders: "all
men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain
inalienable rights that among them are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness." King's dream is rooted in the ideas of human
equality, individual freedom, and the consent of the governed.
These ideas depend on absolute truth and moral law, and they are
supported and affirmed by religion and religious association. This
dream, Dr. King's Conservative message, is nearly lost amidst the
worship of cultural diversity and moral relativism. It is still a
dream worth pursuing.

Carolyn Garris is
Program Coordinator in the Center for American Studies at The
Heritage Foundation.

The Words of the
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

If a man is called to be a street
sweeper, he should sweep streets as Michelangelo painted, or
Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should
sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will
pause to say, here lives a great street sweeper who did his job
well.

"Facing the Challenge of a New Age:" Address at the Institute of
Non-violence and Social Change, Montgomery, Alabama, December
1956

He who accepts evil without
protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

Stride Toward Freedom, 1958

I have a dream that my four little
children will one day live in a nation where they will not be
judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character.

"I have a Dream," Speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington,
D.C., August 28, 1963

Now is the time to make real
the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the
dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of
racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of
opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to
life our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the
solid rock of brotherhood.

"I have a Dream," Speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington,
D.C., August 28, 1963

Power at its best is love
implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love
correcting everything that stands against love.

Strength to Love, 1963

If a man hasn't discovered something
that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.

Speech in Detroit, Michigan June 23, 1963

Shallow understanding from people of
good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from
people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering
than outright rejection.

"Letter from the Birmingham Jail,"April 1963

It is the strangely irrational
notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will
inevitably cure all ills. Actually time is neutral. It can be used
either destructively or constructively. I am coming to feel that
the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than
the people of good will… time is always ripe to do
right.

"Letter from the Birmingham Jail,"April 1963

We will reach the goal of freedom in
Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is
freedom.

"Letter from the Birmingham Jail,"April 1963

One day the South will know that
when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters
they were in reality standing up for the best in the American dream
and the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, and
thusly, carrying our whole nation back to those great wells of
democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in the
formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of
Independence.

"Letter from a Birmingham Jail," April 1963

Change does not roll in on the
wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And
so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man
can't ride you unless your back is bent.

"I See the Promised Land,"Speech in Memphis, Tennessee, April 3,
1968

On the Rev.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Each year on Martin Luther King Day,
let us not only recall Dr. King, but rededicate ourselves to the
Commandments he believed in and sought to live every day: Thou
shall love thy God with all thy heart, and thou shall love thy
neighbor as thyself. And I just have to believe that all of us --
if all of us, young and old, Republicans and Democrats, do all we
can to live up to those Commandments, then we will see the day when
Dr. King's dream comes true.

Ronald Reagan, Remarks on Signing the Bill Making the Birthday of
Martin Luther King, Jr., a National Holiday, November 2, 1983

(In reference to King's quote, "I
have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but
by the content of their character")

If King's Statement is true, it
doesn't matter who says it. If it is true, it is true. Indeed,
everyone should say it. Every one of all races should say it.

Dr. King believed that everybody was
capable of enjoying God's redemptive powers. He did not attack his
enemies. Like Abraham Lincoln, he believed that the best way to
destroy your enemy is to make him your friend.

Robert Woodson, "The Conservative Virtues of Dr. Martin Luther
King," November 5, 1993

There is still a need for us to hear
the words of Martin Luther King, to make sure the hope of America
extends its reach into every neighborhood across this land. So it's
fitting we're here in a church that has got ministries aimed at
healing those who hurt, and fighting addiction and promoting love
and families. It is fitting we meet here in a church because in
this society, we must understand government can help, government
can write checks-but it cannot put hope in people's hearts or a
sense of purpose in people's lives.

George W. Bush, Address at First Baptist Church of Glenarden,
Landover, Maryland January 20, 2003